Everything Is Not As It Seems
by Quitealiar
Summary: "It all started with a stupid bet. I lost. The consequence? Pretend to be a guy for a year." What if Percy was a girl? What if she didn't tell anyone?
1. Prologue

**Earlier, I was thinking of a story I read on another fandom. I also was thinking that we need some non-cliche stuff on here. Suddenly, they combined, and I thought, "What if Percy was a girl?" Yeah, that's how my mind works. Anyway, so at first I thought about how that would destroy pairings, but I realized that we need some non-pairing stuff too. Or at least pairings that aren't overused. Oh, and Seus is pronounced "SEE-us." Anyway, onto the disclaimer!  
><strong>

**I do not own PJATO. **

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><p>I stood in the front of the class. One more year. The teacher introduced me to the other fifth-grade students. I gave this class seven months. I figured after that I'd be kicked out. But these people had seemed a bit more easy-going than some of my other schools.<p>

"This is Perseus Jackson." At this, the teacher, Miss Johnson, looked at me questioningly before continuing. "She's new this year. Please treat her kindly." I sat at my desk, breathing a sigh of relief. That introduction could have been a lot worse. Just then, class started.

"Perseus, huh?" A girl next to me asked. She had straight, long blond hair and bright grey eyes. She wore a blue t-shirt with a cartoon owl, and blue jeans. I grimaced in response to her question. She laughed an infectious laugh, and soon I joined her.

"From Greek Mythology, I'm guessing." I nodded.

"Well, I think it's a great name. For a guy. I can see you agree, huh 'Seus"

"'Seus?" I asked, a small smile on my face.

"Yeah. You know _Per_seus? 'Seus?" I laughed, and the teacher looked at us warningly.

"What's you name?" I whispered.

"Jessica Munroe. Call me Jessie."

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><p>I sat in class, fidgeting and glancing at the clock every few minutes.<p>

"Got a problem?" Jessie asked.

"Yeah. I'm ADHD." She smiled sympathetically.

"So am I. And, as luck would have it, I'm also dyslexic."

"Really? Me too. That's so weird." A thoughtful look came over her face at that.

"Are you a half-blood too?" She asked.

"A what?"

"Ummm... Never mind. But do strange things happen to you?" Oh, believe me, do strange things happen to me. That's what I wanted to say. But I figured she wasn't talking about what what I was thinking of, so I said no.

Just then, I heard, "Happy birthday Nina!" I groaned. Nina Flynn was the "popular" girl at school. I wouldn't mind that, except that she was also really mean. She was always making fun of everyone, especially Jessie and I.

"So they haven't kicked you out yet," she said as she sat down behind me.

"No, and I don't think they're planning to." For once, I added in my head.

"Don't be too sure," she added, sneering. My anger started to build up.

"Ignore her!" Jessie whispered, knowing what I was feeling. I tried to follow her advice, but it was pretty hard. Soon, class started. The teacher asked a question, and called on me. Answered hesitantly, but correctly. Jessie smiled at me, but Nina snickered. My anger started to build up. I felt a tug in my stomach.

The classroom sink suddenly started to overflow, spilling all over Nina. I couldn't help but burst out laughing at her outraged expression, my anger disappearing. Soon, the rest of the class joined me.

"Happy Birthday, Nina," Jessie said innocently.

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><p>"Ugh. I hate this," I said to Jessie. We were on a field trip to the Saratoga battlefield. I was never good with field trips.<p>

"Why?"

"Something always goes wrong!" I told her about some of my horrible field trips. She burst out laughing. That's one of the best parts of having Jessie as a friend. It was easy to make her laugh. I liked making people laugh. I also couldn't stand tears.

"Look at that!" Someone said. I looked over and saw a Revolutionary War cannon.

"I dare someone to shoot it!" Marcus Black, an obnoxiously kid shouted out. No one went up. Marcus and Nina came over.

"I bet you can't hit the road," Marcus said. I snorted.

"Of course I can hit the road!" I burst out.

"You willing to bet on that?"

Without thinking, I burst out, "Yeah, I am!"

"Fine. You miss, you gotta pretend to be a guy for a year. You hit it, I pretend to be a girl." I accepted, despite Jessie's protests. Then I looked at my task. I groaned inwardly as I realized that a line of buses was blocking the road. I stepped up to shoot. I soon realized that I was nowhere near hitting it. It slammed into a bus, and I heard Jessie groan and Nina and Marcus start to laugh.

"Nice try," Nina said sarcastically. It all started with a stupid bet. I lost. The consequence? Pretend to be a guy for a year.

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><p><strong>So, like it? Hate it? Tell me in a review. The other chapters will be longer.<strong>


	2. Chapter 1

**Hope you like it! Also, the voice is going to be different, but don't you think it would be with a girl? Also, I don't want to copy what Rick Riordan wrote. Plus, that's against the rules. In this, Percy isn't Grover's roommate. The people who give people roommates would know Percy was a girl. Please forgive me for any mistakes about boarding schools.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this series.**

The day after the field trip I was kicked out. I was hoping that meant I could avoid the results of the bet. Unfortunately, I met Nina on the way back home. She smirked when she saw me.

"Forget that little bet?" She asked. I had been hoping _she_ had, but no such luck. She pulled me into the bathroom of a nearby department store. She pulled out a pair of scissors. My eyes widened when I saw them. I loved having my hair long, and I couldn't stand the thought of cutting it off.

"Can't I just wear a hat or something?" I asked.

"Nope. You'd have to take off the hat during school hours." Her smile seemed to grow wider as she said this. Soon, she started cutting. I tried to get away, but it was a small bathroom, and she stayed between me and the door. She hacked off huge chunks, and when she stopped, I really did look like a guy. She handed me a bag as she departed with a smirk. I looked inside and saw that it was full of guy clothes. _What have I gotten myself into? _I wondered.

My mom was surprised, to say the least, when I got home. I expected that. Thankfully, my hair was still long enough so that she couldn't tell I was trying to look like a guy. She didn't ask any question though. Probably figured questions wouldn't do anything. She just said it looked nice, and that was that.

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><p>Jessie called me that summer. I was surprised at that. Usually, my friends don't bother to keep in touch after I get kicked out. She said she couldn't talk long. Something about going to a camp? I didn't really understand that. I guess it's against the rules there or something. Anyway, she tried to convince me not to pretend to be a guy. She knew I would try. She brought up some good points, but I wouldn't give up. I was a girl of my word.<p>

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><p>My first class was pre-algebra. I turned to the kid seated next to me and introduced myself as Percy(I still wouldn't use my full name) Jackson. I suddenly realized that I hadn't disguised my voice. Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, my voice was kind of low for a girl, so he didn't seem to think anything was wrong. He introduced himself as Grover, before the teacher, Mrs. Robertson interrupted us. She seemed very strange and very strict. Anytime it started to get loud, she threatened us all with detention, even if only a few people were talking. I was glad to get out of class.<p>

I kept reminding myself to talk to guys. I had nothing against them, but, as a girl, my instinct was to talk to other girls. It helped that Grover was in a lot of my classes. At the end of the day, I went back to my room. I was lucky. There were an odd number of students, so I ended up with my own room. That was nice for privacy reasons, but not so nice for an excuse not to act like a guy. I went through with it, though. I was a girl of my word.

The days passed normally, well, as normally as they can when you're a girl pretending to be a guy. Some of the teachers seemed surprised to see me pretending. I guess they knew I was a girl, but others apparently didn't read their student descriptions well. You know, if they have those. Mrs. Robertson continued to be strict. Other teachers were better though. Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was great. I didn't understand why we even _had _a Latin teacher, but I still liked him. He was one who didn't seem to know I was a girl. I was kind of grateful for that. I mean, come on, how would you like it if your favorite teacher knew about a weird, slightly embarrassing secret you had?

Around Christmas, Mrs. Robinson had a nervous breakdown. I was pretty excited to learn that she would be leaving, until I met her replacement. Mrs. Dodds was even more strict, and she hated me. I had no clue why. What did I ever do to her?

I had a few run-ins with Nancy Bobofit, the school bully. She seemed to like to tease Grover, and soon me for being friends with him. Why am I always the one who gets teased for their friends?

Other than her and some other bullies, I liked my time at Yancy. I got used to pretending to be a guy. I think I tricked people. I will admit I'm a bit clueless sometimes, but I acted even more so. Most guys are. I'm not trying to insult guys, but it's just a fact. It wasn't until a field trip in May that things started to get weird. I hated most Yancy field trips. This was worse than worse than the others. At least I didn't get kicked out.

We were going to look at old Greek and Roman stuff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some of it actually seemed really interesting. It was really hard to pay attention. Everyone was talking. No one seemed to care about what we supposed to be looking, except Grover and some smart kids. I know what you're thinking. Smart kids at a school for troubled kids? Apparently, they had some kinds of disorders. One was a kleptomaniac, like Nancy, but she was really nice when she wasn't stealing. Another had bipolar disorder. He was great and fun to be around, even it was a little weird when he switched moods abruptly. They seemed interested in it, but they were pretty much the only ones.

I got really annoyed when Nancy and some of her friends started mocking the art. I kind of snapped then, and ended up having to answer a question. I stammered a bit, which was partially real, partially faked. I got one thing wrong, but I quickly corrected myself. I talked to Mr. Brunner after everyone else went outside. I talked to Grover. He didn't help me feel any better, but then Nancy came over. That's when things started to get really strange.

She dumped her lunch in Grover's lap.

"Oops." She said, but her smile told me she didn't mean it. I got so mad, I didn't bother with the calming techniques the counselor told me. Suddenly, Nancy was sitting in the fountain, screaming accusations. I heard the shocked whispers of my classmates around me, but I was too surprised to react to the confusing murmurs. Mrs. Dodds came over with a look on her face that told me that I was in huge trouble. It was worse than I thought. She turned into a _monster _and attacked me. I was saved by Mr. Brunner, who ended up acting like nothing had happened. In fact, everyone did.

Later, before a huge exam, I overheard Grover and Mr. Brunner saying they thought I was going to be killed. That was creepy. The next day, Mr. Brunner was talking to me, making it seem like he actually wanted me to leave. I knew that wasn't how he meant it, but that's how it felt. I rode the bus back with Grover. It broke down halfway, stranding us near three old ladies knitting giant socks. Afterwards, Grover acted like I was dying. It was disturbing. I left without him. My rotten step-dad was rude, as usual. The good news was that my mom and I got to go to Montauk. It's my favorite place in the world.

But of course, something had to ruin that too.

There was a huge storm that night. It was worse than any I've been in before. It woke me from a horrible dream, but I wasn't so sure I was awake when I saw Grover. He told us we had to leave. I was too stunned to question him. He seemed too focused to really look at me. That was good. Before we left, I ran and grabbed my sweatshirt and pulled it on before grabbing my jacket. I guess at that point it was instinct to try to keep my secret.

After getting over my shock, I began to almost frantically ask about what he was. Soon though, that didn't matter much to me. Our car ran into a ditch, after being hit by lightning. A few minutes later, we were being attacked by another monster. Man, is my luck bad.

I ended up having to attack all by myself. Grover was knocked unconscious, and my mother… disappeared. I stumbled down the hill, where I saw two people, a girl and a familiar-looking man. I hadn't fully recognized him before the girl muttered something, and I fell unconscious.

I had some pretty strange dreams about barnyard animals, but that wasn't so strange. Well, the part about the barnyard animals was, but not the strange dreams. What was strange was that I kept waking up and falling back asleep. It was as if I didn't even have enough strength to stay conscious, and that was scary.

Sometimes the blond girl from the first night was helping me. Something that struck me as strange was how similar she looked to Jessie. Straighten the hair and change the face shape and they could be twins. In some of my more confused moments, I thought she might even _be _Jessie. I disregarded that thought, though.

I wanted to be fully conscious, so I would know what was going on, but, unfortunately, things just got more confusing at that point.


	3. Chapter 2

**AN: I'm sorry for not updating sooner, but I have trouble with that. I'm working on it. It's kind of a mental block. I wanted to work on this, but I couldn't. I was fighting myself. I will try not to do that. Also, I'm doing NaNoWriMo, so that gives me less time as well. Once again, I apologize.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJatO, just Seus.**

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><p>Finally, I woke up feeling refreshed instead of exhausted like I had before. I sat up quickly, not wanting to collapse again. I looked around.<p>

My surroundings were much nicer than I expected. I was on a huge porch, looking out a meadow at green hills in the breeze smelled like wonderful, like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs and a pillow behind my neck, like someone had tried to make me comfortable. It was rather futile. I felt mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was disgusting and horribly dry, and every one of my teeth hurt.

There was a table next to me with a tall drink on it. The drink looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. I reached out to grab it. Mid-reach, I realized that it might be someone else's. I only paused for a moment, though. I was so thirsty. It felt like I had anything to drink in months. Hopefully, it it did belong to someone else, they didn't mind me having it.

I was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.

"Careful." I heard someone say. The voice sounded familiar. I smiled when I realized that it was Grover, but I also felt a sense of dread. I had been hoping that what had happened had been a nightmare. That my mom wasn't dead. I had even been thinking of reasons for why we would be here.

But if this was just a part of our vacation, why would Grover be here? Every thing I thought up that could possibly explain his presence away was ridiculous and pathetic. The only reasonable explanation was that what had happened was real.

My mind still protested. He looked normal, wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt. Maybe I was just missing something obvious. Maybe my nightmare was messing with my reasoning. It had never been particularly good in the first place and after my nightmares and other weird situations it was always worse. I could easily have missed something someone else would have seen.

"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."

Reverently, he placed an old shoebox that he had been cradling on my lap. Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn. A burst of grief rushed through me. It hadn't been a nightmare.

The base was jagged from being broken off and the tip was splattered with dried blood.

"The Minotaur," I said.

"Uh, Percy, it's not a good idea to say his name." I remembered Mom saying something like that, but I really didn't understand it. How much danger could just saying a name cause?

"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, right? You know, half-man, half-bull? The Minotaur."

Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"

"My mom. Is she really ..."

He looked down. I closed my eyes. My mom was dead. It was my fault. I should have saved her. She wouldn't have even been there if she hadn't thought I was in danger.

I looked out across the meadow, hoping for something to distract me. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, and acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, which was directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.

My mother was gone. She had died. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.

"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."

He moaned, stomping his foot so hard that it came off. Well, the hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.

"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.

Thunder rolled across the clear sky.

I thought 'Well, that settles it. Grover is a satyr.' I was willing to guess that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.

As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I said, "No, I'm sure that's not true." It was hard to comfort him when I wanted to be comforted, but I couldn't just leave him that upset.

I was too miserable to say any more. I didn't even care that satyrs existed. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light. I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?

No. I would never let that happen. I would live on the streets first. I'd go into foster care. I'd do something.

Grover continued to sniffle. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever he was- looked as if he expected to be hit.

I tried cheering him up again. "It wasn't your fault." It did feel like that, though I knew it wasn't. I just wanted it to be. I wanted to blame him.

"Yes, it was. I was supposed to _protect _you."

"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"

"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was a keeper."

"But why?" I wanted to continue, but suddenly I felt dizzy, my vision swimming.

"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my mouth.

I recoiled at first, because I had expected something different. I had expected apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.

And they weren't just any cookies- my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy and happiness. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek and told me everything would be all right.  
>I remembered baking them with her, laughing when we made a mess, which we did every time. My mom had even had a way of making the clean-up fun.<p>

When I'd finished, I looked at the glass in surprise. It seemed like I had just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes were still solid.

Grover asked me what it had tasted like. I felt guilty when I heard his wistful tone.

"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."

His eyes widened. "No!" He said, shaking his head frantically. "That's not what I meant. I was just... wondering."

"It was chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."

He sighed. "And how do you feel now?"

"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."

"Good," he said. "That's good. Don't drink any more of that stuff. I don't think you can risk it."

"What are you talking about?"

He took the empty glass from me carefully, as if it were explosive, before setting it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse. I felt sick, trying to walk that far.

Grover noticed. "Do you want me to carry it?" he asked.

"No, I got it." I had paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.

I looked around as we came out onto the porch. I guessed that we were on the north shore of Long Island. On this side of the house, the porch went right up to the water. I couldn't process what I was seeing. I had seen a lot of strange things recently, but this was what finally stunned me.

Down at the end of the porch was a group of people. There were two men sitting across from each other with a girl standing next to them.  
>As I got closer, I realized that she was the Jessie look-a-like, the one who had helped me when I was drifting in and out of consciousness.<p>

I also saw that one of the men was Mr. Brunner. At first, I thought that I must have been imagining his presence. Why would he be there?

The other man, though, I didn't recognize, but I didn't like him.

"That's Mr. D," Grover muttered to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."

He pointed at the man I thought was Mr. Brunner. Now I was close enough to realize that it was him.

"Mr. Brunner?" I asked in confusion.

He turned to me, his eyes glinting mischievously.

"Ah, good, Percy. Now we have four for pinochle." He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Well, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."

"Um thanks." I scooted away from him. Living with Gabe, I had learned how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. Mr. D was no stranger to alcohol.

I wanted to ask Mr. Brunner why he was there, but before I could, he addresses the girl.

"Annabeth?" He called.

She came over to us, and we were formally introduced. Mr. Brunner mentioned that she had helped nursed me back to health. I thanked her for this before Mr. Brunner spoke up.

"Annabeth, my dear, why don't you you go check on Percy's bunk. We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now." My heart sank at these words. I had hoped that he would have noticed that I was a girl. I supposed it was because I was still wearing my sweatshirt. Plus, I had never been very "endowed" anyway. I really wasn't looking forward to explaining that.

Well, I didnt' need to right now, did I? Certainly I could wait a while. I'd explain later.

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><p><strong>Okay, so I think next chapter I'll be able to write something instead of pretty much summarizing. I'll try to update soon.<strong>


	4. Chapter 3

**All right. I am going to slightly change her personality. I figure that being a girl would slightly change your personality, plus experiences change you, and she, being a girl, would have different experiences.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJatO**

Honestly, the whole conversation I had with Mr. Brun- Chiron, I had to keep reminding myself- and Mr. D and the tour afterward just confused me even more. Still, it was hard to argue with what they showed me. After a while, I just accepted it. Greek mythology was real. And I was a part of it.

I hadn't told Chiron the truth yet. I was embarrassed, and I certainly didn't want to tell him around other people. This was going to be bad enough as it was. I figured- I hoped- that most people would just assume that _they _had missed something, not that I had been stupid enough to disguise my gender.

Well, at least I'd get the enjoyment of seeing his face when I told him. I hoped it'd be good, and not hidden as most of his expressions were. Seeing that would at least somewhat make up for the whole awful thing.

Eventually, he had Annabeth show me my cabin. She announced who I was and that I was "undetermined" whatever that was. She didn't seem particularly pleased with the way I acted. She dragged me off and told me I "had to do better than that," and then gave me a very confusing explanation about monsters being killed but not dying.

Then, she talked about who my father was, a topic I was not comfortable with. Still, she forced the topic on me, finally saying that I was a half-blood. I choked on air a couple of times, remembering what Jessie had asked once. I'd shoved the question away, and had soon forgotten about the experience. I can't believe she was right. I can't believe she actually asked me that.

Wait, Jessie had said "too," so I'm guessing that she was also a half-blood. So, she was probably here now. I would have to find her. Well, what better way to find out than to ask someone, right?

"Hey, do you know a Jessica Munroe?" Annabeth looked at me, confused.

"Yes, she's my half-sister. Why do you ask?" She replied, looking at me suspiciously. She seemed to be analyzing everything I did. I hated it. I couldn't stand the thought that maybe she knew my secrets.

"Well she-" I realized that maybe Jessie would get in trouble for telling me. "I, um, I knew her a while back. She was my friend at one of my schools." Annabeth seemed to roll her eyes at the words "one of my schools," but she listened. "Well, she had ADHD and dyslexia, and you just said that most half-bloods have them, so I just thought that maybe she was also here."

Annabeth's suspicions seemed to lessen at this comment, though they didn't go away entirely.

"Oh. Well, just because someone has those doesn't mean they're a half-blood, so you probably shouldn't assume, but she's here." I smiled.

"Okay. Thanks. I'll see if I can talk to her later."

Just then, a shout reached my ears.

"Well! A newbie!"

Looking over, I saw the big girl from that awful red cabin sauntering over to us. There were three other girls following her. They were all as big, ugly, and mean-looking as she was. All of them were wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. I missed most of the insult that followed to appreciate the irony of this girl having such a frilly name, and to mentally commiserate awful names with her. Honestly, I don't know why my mother gave me that name. Normally, she's so much more reasonable. She once told me it was about luck, before adding that she wasn't fully sure why she had given it to me. I had been thought to be a boy, which would make the name a lot better. Not perfect, still a rather weird name, but better. Maybe she was too exhausted after labor to bother with a better name.

"Sure, Miss Princess," Clarisse was saying as I tuned back in to the conversation. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"_Erre es korakas!_" Annabeth said.I was shocked that I somehow understood what she was saying. _Go to the crows!_ I translated mentally. I figured that was probably a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, eye twitching a little. I guessed that she wasn't entirely sure about that. Turning toward me, she changed the subject.

"Who's this little runt?"

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said. "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

Blinking, I responded. "Like the war god?"

Clarisse sneered in respond. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."

"We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy." Clarisse growled.

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to jump in.

"Stay out of it, wise girl." Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, which I was glad for. I was the new kid, and I had to earn my own reputation. I had always been an impulsive person, (the bet that got me my biggest secret is one good example of that) so I didn't consider that this may not be the best thing to do.

Handing Annabeth my minotaur horn, I got ready to fight, but Clarisse started dragging me toward a cinder-block block building that I instantly knew was the bathroom. Oh, really! How is that fair? I'm okay with an unfair fight, but just dragging me off to the bathroom? Really?

Just in front of the toilet, I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. The toilet exploded all over her and her friends, while I was completely dry. She continued to be blasted with water, and eventually, she fled the room, with me taunting her as she left. Then, I saw Annabeth. She was also soaked. I cringed. I really hadn't meant to get her as well. Annabeth was staring at me. I wasn't sure if she was grossed out, angry, or just shocked.

"What?" I demanded finally. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," she said. "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."

**Don't worry about Jessie becoming too much of a main character. She will be there a lot, but mostly because Percy is gonna be craving some actual "girl time" without having to look like a freak or gay. No one wants to look like a freak or gay. Even those who are homosexual, don't want the discrimination that comes with it.**

**Also, if things are the same, then that's either because I also don't want Percy to be entirely different or because I'm not changing the other characters in any way.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey, please tell me if I'm using awkward phrasing or unusual words or anything. I have an amazing vocabulary and, though I try to use normal speech, I don't always realize what that is. I've said things before that I thought were perfectly normal, but then look around and realize that the people I'm talking to have no idea what I just said. I don't want to make Percy too different, so please just tell me if what she says seems weird.**

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><p>Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.<p>

She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.

Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, I'm really sorry about the toilets."

"Whatever."

"It wasn't my fault."

She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it _was _my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.

"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.

"Who?"

"Not who. What... The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."

I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.

I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below.

They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.

I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.

"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts." I almost laughed. It seemed strange that any girls would flirt with me. It had happened occasionally at Yancy. Apparently, I made a handsome guy.

Still, that finally overwhelmed me.

"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now." I could accept that mythology was real. I could accept that my Latin teacher was half horse. I could even accept that I was a half-blood. But I couldn't accept any more.

Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You _are _home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."

"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"

"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."

Then who's your dad?" I got the feeling that that wasn't the best thing to say. Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I realized I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.

"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."

"He's human."

"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?" I briefly wondered if you could be sexist toward your own gender, before asking Annabeth who her mom was.

"Cabin Six."

"Meaning?"

Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."

Okay, I thought. Why not?

"And my dad?"

"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."

"Except my mother. She knew."

"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."

"My dad would have. He loved her." I realized I sounded stupidly optimistic, like a little kid whose parents have divorced, but I really believed it. Annabeth didn't seem to. She gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."

"So, sometimes it doesn't?"

"The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."

I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.

I hated the thought of spending the rest of my life here. Annabeth explained that I might not have to, though it wasn't like I had anything to return to. I would never go back to Smelly Gabe. I was relieved to hear that at least monsters couldn't get in. For a few minutes, I actually had a normal conversation with Annabeth, which was the first time that had happened since I had arrived. Soon, though, our conversation returned to talk about the crazy world of gods and monsters.

Later, after I had gone back to the Hermes Cabin, Luke came over to talk to me. I noticed that a lot of the campers, including him, had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers.

On Luke, it was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.

"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."

I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part. I thanked him before he sat next to me, and pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"

"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."

"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."

I was surprised by the bitterness in Luke's voice, because he seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.

"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.

He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I almost thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."

"The wing-footed messenger guy."

"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."

I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.

"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.

"Once."

I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had any thing to do with how he got his scar.

Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."

I smiled at that, and soon, he went into a discussion about prophecies. It was interrupted by the sound of a conch shell in the distance.

"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey, I've put up a poll on my profile about when everyone should discover Percy's secret. Throughout the story, people will find out, for instance, I plan to have Annabeth and Grover find out sometime on the quest, and, if it goes to the fourth book, I plan to have Nico find out at the birthday party, but I'm not sure when I want, you know, everyone else to find out.**

The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.

Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird.

I found out that Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.

The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow.

He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.

Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.

But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.

And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me, which would probably have been a lot more embarrassing if I had actually been a guy.

"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.

The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.

I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but have any of the special skills associated with certain gods.

Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.

Despite all that, I liked camp. Once I got settled in to the Hermes cabin, I headed over to Cabin Six. I saw Jessie walk out of the cabin and hurried over to her.

"Jessie!" I called out. She turned, obviously confused. Her eyes narrowed when she saw me, but I saw them widen with realization when I got closer.

"'Seus?" She smiled. "Oh my gods, you actually followed through on the bet?"

"Yeah. Call me Percy." She laughed,

"Hey! Stop it!" I pretended to pout, which made her laugh even harder.

"You know, it's not like I'm the only one who did something stupid. You actually asked me if I was a half-blood. And I thought children of Athena were supposed to be smart." I teased back.

"Well, if you knew you were one, then it would be fine and I would be able to see you this summer. And I figured that if you weren't a half-blood or didn't know you were one, then you would just forget about it. And you did, so shut up!" I laughed along with her.

"You've told people, right? You're just pretending for me?" I cringed. She took that as my response.

"Oh, Seus- or Percy, I guess. You can't just let people think you're a guy!"

"I know! But I can't tell them. It's- embarrassing." I realized how stupid that excuse was, but I really couldn't make myself admit the truth to anyone.

"Yeah, well how much more embarrassing is it going to be later? Waiting is just going to make it harder."

"I know that, but I don't know how to tell anyone!" Jessie sighed, looking exasperated.

"Just go up to Chiron and tell him! If you don't want to admit about the bet, just say something like, 'I've noticed that I kind of look like a guy, but I'm a girl. Just in case you didn't know.'"

"Fine. I'll tell him! Tomorrow." Jessie gave me a look.

"Hey, it's almost time for capture the flag. He'll be busy getting ready." I had no idea if that was true, but Jessie accepted the answer.

Jessie and I talked for a while, before heading over to the woods. We got our assignments and soon, the game was on. I mostly spent the game sulking over getting stuck with guard duty, but the last several minutes were much more eventful. Clarisse came back with some of her cabin mates, Uglies 1 through 4. The attack by them was soon followed by an attack from a hellhound. After that, it was revealed that I was the daughter of Poseidon.

The next few days, I was ignored by pretty much everyone. Within a week, I found out that it was pretty much a crime for me just to be alive, and that I was going to have to go on a quest to save a stupid lightning bolt that had nothing to do with me, and if I didn't, I could die.

So it's perfectly excusable that I didn't take the time to mention my secret.

**Please visit my poll about her secret, and if you want to see someone find out before the big reveal, please suggest it in a review.**


	7. Chapter 6

**All right. I want to have Percy keep the secret for a while, and I'm going to explain why. Okay, so far Percy has just let people believe that he's a guy, because it would be embarrassing to admit the truth, but soon, she's going to start actively trying to hide the truth. I mean, she could be passive before because it's easy since she's twelve and because it's convienent to the story, but soon she will have to try.**

Before leaving camp, I got two gifts. One was a sword, Riptide, which I was very grateful for, and the other was a pair of flying shoes. It was nice of Luke to give me them, but I couldn't use, which pretty much sucked. But I gave them to Grover, so at least one person on the quest could use them.

Annabeth blushed and nearly started hyperventilating when Luke came to say goodbye, which I teased her about, of course, but I could kind of understand her crush. Luke was pretty cute, though I didn't really share her crush. I think I blushed when he came over too, because he barely even knows me and he was willing to give me that. For a little while after that, I was fairly worried because I thought it might give away my secret. I was going to reveal it, but I really didn't want to reveal it now. I was all set to go on this quest.

I was going to save my mom. The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.

All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.

You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, the Oracle whispered in my mind. You will fail to save what matters most in the end. I told it to shut up.

"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."

"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you."

"Could've fooled me."

She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."

"Why?"

She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful.

Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."

"They must really like olives."

"Oh, forget it."

"Now, if she'd invented pizza—that I could understand."

"I said, forget it!"

In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me. Wait, did he think Annabeth and I were flirting or something? I almost laughed at that. I guess it did kinda look like that, since he thought I was a guy. Well, maybe he wasn't thinking that.

Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.

Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL?

My eyes widened, and I quickly ripped it down. It wasn't a very old picture of me. My hair was cut the same, and it wasn't hard to see that it was me. If Annabeth or Grover saw it they would know. Grover frowned.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing." I replied, hoping he would drop it. He did, but clearly reluctantly.

Later, he explained that he could read my emotions, which I guess is why he knew I was surprised. He also explained that my mom married Smelly Gabe for me.

"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago.

Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."

It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it.

We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was amazing. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.

The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.

Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.

Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy—enchiladas. He was clearly worried, even though he said it was probably nothing. It wasn't nothing.

After we got on the bus, three old women came on the bus, including Mrs. Dodds.. They all looked the same, like triplet demon grandmothers. Before long, they transformed into monsters. Annabeth tried to get me to leave them, but I couldn't leave my friends behind. I did something that was so impulsive, so stupid, that I should have been named ADHD poster child. I took control of the bus. It worked, though. Annabeth, Grover, and I got off the bus before the monsters killed us and just before the bus exploded.

We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.

**Also, I want the secret to be kept maybe even into the Son of Neptune, because then Percy, of course, wouldn't remember that she kept the secret, so the Greeks would think Percy's a guy, and the Romans know she's a girl. Also, I know it's short, but I am not very inspired for this right now, and I just wanted to get it up.**


	8. Chapter 7

**All right, I'm taking the advice of some reviewers, so most of the quest is going to be skipped. Be prepared.**

After the bus exploded, we decided to visit a place called Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium. This turned out to be a really bad idea. "Aunty Em" turned out to be Medusa in disguise. Because our luck's just like that. We killed her with the help of Grover the flying goat-boy. The next morning we got instructions from Gladiola the pink poodle, who apparently could read. By the end of the day, we were on a train heading west by the end of the day.

The next day, I noticed that Grover was acting kind of weird. Later, he asked me to talk with him. I gave him a weird look, but went with him.

"Percy," he started. " Back at the beginning of the quest, I saw this." He held up a poster. It was the one I had seen back in New York. The one that showed that I was a girl.

"You're a girl. It does explain a lot though. Your voice has always been kind of high for a guy. Plus, you acted strange around guys for a little while when you first came to Yancy. And you always wore a jacket and your clothes were kinda baggy."

I had started making my voice lower pretty soon after my first day at Yancy. It was hard, but I got it pretty quickly.

"Why did you hide it?"

"A bet." Grover blinked.

"A bet." He said, sighing. "What do you mean?"

"Okay, well, I made a bet the year before I went to Yancy and I lost. The rules of the bet were that I was supposed to pretend to be a guy for a year if I lost. I didn't really want to go through with it, but they made me. Plus, I figured that I'd be kicked out of Yancy in a year anyway, so I did it. Then, you brought me to camp, and I didn't want to admit it at first because it was embarrassing, and then later, it was so busy that I didn't really have time to."

"All right. Just..."

"I'm gonna tell them. Just later."

"Okay Percy. And, what's your real name? It's not actually Perseus, right?"

"It is. I was supposed to be a boy, so mom picked it before I was born. She said he was lucky. She also said something about being exhausted after I was born. She could have changed it, I guess. She just didn't."

We spent the rest of the train ride in relative peace. I saw a lot of really cool things on the trip. Once, I saw something huge in the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was huge. It was a Hummer-size lion. Another time, I saw a family of centaurs.

We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats, which was not fun for my neck. I had a dream about someone asking me for help. Their voice felt evil, and it was coming from a pit, which can never be a good thing.

Annabeth talked about her dad a little. She said that she hated him, but I wasn't so sure. She sounded like she felt forgotten. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn't know how. I've never been good at that kind of thing.

It was nice to talk to Annabeth. I hadn't really had any girls as friends in a while, and it was nice to just talk. I told her a little about my mom, but it was still too painful to say a lot about her. Annabeth told me that she wants to be an architect. I found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day. Or really, anyone with ADHD doing that. My laugh got Annabeth annoyed with me, but we set up a temporary truce.

Annabeth wanted to visit the Gateway Arch, so we went with her. There I was attacked by a monster. Echidna with her son, a Chimera. There was a family with us. I was losing badly, and had to jump off the arch. I landed in the Mississippi River, where I learned a few things. Apparently, I can breathe underwater. And I don't have to get wet unless I want too. That was fairly cool. I also didn't die. I know that I'm not the smartest person around, and I don't talked with a strange woman who reminded me of my mother. She told me to go to Santa Monica, and warned me not to "trust the gifts."


End file.
